Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Often in OB-GYN files, we come across pregnancy tests, let us get a general idea about what these are.

Pregnancy tests are tests that show if a woman is pregnant or not. There are two types of pregnancy tests,
i) Test using urine sample.
ii) Test using blood sample.

Both of the above tests are for detecting the presence of a hormone called human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). This hormone is produced by the placenta shortly after the embryo attaches itself to the uterine lining and builds up rapidly in the pregnant woman's body in the first few days of pregnancy.It is this rapid shift in hormones that triggers most of the pregnancy symptoms.

Saturday, April 18, 2015

If I ask you "Ever had singultus"? You may blink and perhaps may get the Mr. Bean look on your face, at least I would do the same if I were you. Now let me paraphrase and say, "Do you have had synchronous diaphragmatic flutter or SDF"....I believe the Mr. Bean look wont be going away.....and you may add..."Speak English" to which I would reply..."Ever had hiccups...my dear"......

Cervical incompetence is the early opening up and shortening of cervix during pregnancy resulting in either preterm birth or miscarriage. For women with cervical incompetence or insufficiency, cervical erclage is the panacea. Though McDonald cerclage is the most commonly used and popular type of surgery done, there is an Indian connection also, namely the Shirodkar cerclage, named after famous Indian Obstretician Dr. V. N. Shirodkar.

I found this site quite helpful and comprehensive regarding the information on cervical incompetence.

Monday, March 30, 2015

Three and a half years is a not big time frame to hold comparisons or to form balanced opinion, and I would mostly agree to this view, but not for medical transcription. Having come back to MT fold after a hiatus of 3.5 years, I find the environment more tough, more stringent, and therefore less lucrative.

While it is true that voice recognition has been a tool for enhancing productivity, saving time etc...it has also lead to stricter quality control regimens being put in place. Looking from a patient safety point of view, having quality control is the way forward. This holds true for all industries, not only MT as this helps in letting the industry evolve and sets the benchmark for future. The reason quality control and checks exist is that the final product which reaches the consumer never falters beyond the acceptance level of the consumer as well as the industry standards and the balances and checks that have been built in the quality control process makes the industry a better place in the future. In other words, it makes the industry stronger and robust.

However, the quality control and checks seems to have taken a new meaning for MT industry. While on the one hand, the frequent audits ensure that MTs are always on their toes with regard to accuracy of their reports, it also means that their productivity diminishes. Although productivity cannot be enhanced at the cost of patient safety, there seems to be no steps being taken to counter the end of the problem, i.e. the quality of dictation. It is a known fact that a good dictation produces a good transcribed report, although a skilled transcriptionist can make a good transcribed report from a bad dictation as well. So, who will bell the cat? A transcriptionist alone does not produce a report, dictator plays a big part in it. With all the quality checks, audits etc concentrating on the transcriptionist, his or her productivity is bound to suffer and this will lead to migration of skilled workers into other avenues.

A quality check or control which is making the workforce insecure and flee to other avenues has got something blatantly wrong and I hope the bigwigs take note and make amends before its too late.

Friday, October 11, 2013

I am working as a Project Secretary and also document
controller in a substation project.
Project Secretary is an administrative post, which involves providing
support to Project Manager, Construction Manager, Planning Manager, Project
Engineer, and Electrical Site Engineer. Project
Secretary is a sort of common thread connecting different functional leads and helps
in the smooth running of the project.

The document controller is a person who is in charge of all the
documents coming in and going out of the project.The most important aspect of this job is
creating traceability.You will be asked
suddenly to present a document which was sent by a vendor on certain date, a
good document controller will be able to trace out the document in a
jiffy.This is a job which requires one
to be well organized.Although in other
projects of our company, Project Secretary and Document Controller are two separate
persons, in my project I am playing a double role.

My previous job experience of Medical Transcriptionist and Audit
Executive have been of great help in performing the role of Project
Secretary. I have had good exposure to
MS word as an MT and MS Excel as an Audit Executive, and here as a Project
Secretary, I am using MS Word, MS Excel and also MS Power Point extensively.Image Courtesy: www.dciobjectives.com